Thoughts on Problemista (2023): What we think we deserve

I'm the thorns that protect the rose.

i would like to crawl into julio torres' beautiful world and live there forever

Problemista is a love letter from meek child to "overbearing" parent, a tender and sweet proclamation of love and a rallying cry for all those hidden in docility to be emboldened.

We as meek, wide-eyed children are unwise to the ways of the world, and a desire to conform to the established systems within society manifests itself in an accommodating politeness and an aversion to attention. We smile and nod at uncomfortable situations to avoid making scenes and are ushered into predicaments with a quiet acceptance, all out of a fear of toeing the line.

Our own timidity seems to be at odds with the approach of our parents' generation. We are embarrassed and hang our heads the very moment they ask us to pose for a picture, or want to voice a complaint about a restaurant service, or request to see a manager.

Julio Torres positions Alejandro as the gentle and hesitant child, stuck between the rock that is immigration law and the hard place (low-income New York City), and Elizabeth as the difficult and overbearing parent, furiously critical and endlessly frazzled. They both represent such extreme poles on either side on the spectrum, that we would lead ourselves to believe that they would clash ceaselessly and terribly.

And yet, they don't.
Alejandro and Elizabeth, despite it all, have a fondness and respect for one another; Elizabeth's impossible standards are recontextualised as a boldness that the soft-spoken Alejandro admires. Torres elects to portray Elizabeth's disagreeable episodes with a soft-spoken earnestness and sensitivity rather than through a wholly negative lens, as if to challenge our perceptions of compassion and love. If we strive and aim to be kind and pride ourselves in not making others uncomfortable (an attitude based in compassion [i hope] ), why then are we so quick to vilify someone that does? And is it so wrong to demand better things for ourselves?

As Torres so colourfully illustrates in multiple scenes, the system is so often rigged against us. It is so difficult to succeed in these corporate systems that are so full of alienating jargon and roundabout policies, that to blindly conform to the process would mean subjecting yourself to more of the same torment at your own expense. It is as Elizabeth so beautifully says to Alejandro:

I want you to promise me
that you don't just plump
for these, um,
unacceptable options
that the thoughtless people
who run this planet are gonna
put in front of you.
When they tell you you can
only turn left or right,
you let them know
that you're going up.
Always send the food back,
uh, stand up for yourself
and remember, it's not just
a matter of everything
or nothing at all.
It's everything or everything.

And that was the mindset that our parents have. In their struggle to provide for us, through every droplet of sweat they boldly carved out a future for us, a future that we exist in now while largely forgetting the efforts of the past. Be bold! Rise up! Demand more! Fuck Filemaker Pro! You have to be the force to claim all that you feel you deserve!


other things i appreciated from this film that i couldn't fit into the original review:

larry owens craigslist monster
Alejandro's mother and her worrisome love... very much the other side of the coin for the "overbearing" love that parents have <3
comforts of discovering sexuality
alejandro's cowlick
greta lee

love love love muacks

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 23rd June 2024